NBA TV's 96 Game Regular Season Garners Highest Viewership Ever

The NBA’s official television network saw a record viewership for the 2011-12 regular season. Overall, the average viewership for its 96 game regular season schedule was 337,000 viewers, up 33% from last year when it averaged 253,000.

The 2011-12 saw several milestones for NBA TV including its most watched game ever, 6 of the top ten highest viewed games came this season and the first quarter of 2012 was its most viewed quarter ever.

So despite fan anger over the lockout and losing a month of the regular season, fans were quick to forgive and forget.

We have the NBA TV press release outlining some of the numbers and the milestones achieved this season.

NBA TV Scores Record Viewership for 2011-12 NBA Regular Season

NBA Playoff Coverage Includes Originally-Produced Games

NBA TV’s coverage of the 2011-12 NBA regular season delivered record-setting viewership for the network. The network’s 96-game regular-season schedule averaged 337,000 viewers (+33 percent vs. 253,000) and 266,000 households (+34 percent vs. 199,000), compared with the same number of telecasts last season, according to Nielsen. NBA TV is currently available in 59 million households.

Additional milestones this season include:

  • The most-viewed regular-season game in NBA TV history – on January 14, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Clippers averaged 756,000 viewers to become the network’s most-viewed regular-season telecast.
  • Six of the network’s top 10 most-viewed NBA TV telecasts – Lakers/Clippers, Jan. 14; Chicago/Clippers, Dec. 30 (722,000 viewers); Clippers/Lakers, Jan. 25 (686,000 viewers), Spurs/Heat, Jan. 17 (675,000 viewers); Heat/Magic, Mar. 13 (643,000 viewers); and Thunder/Clippers, Jan. 30 (625,000 viewers).
  • A record 2012 first quarter – NBA TV posted its most-viewed quarter ever, up 36 percent in viewership over last year.
  • Increases in prime-time viewing –NBA TV averaged 177,000 viewers (+26 percent) and 141,000 household impressions (+27 percent) in prime time throughout the regular season.
  • Double-digit growth in all key demos – NBA TV continues to average the youngest median age (34.8) of any sports network. NBA TV’s key demographics are up significantly over last season: A18-34 (+45 percent); A18-49 (+30 percent); A25-54 (+30 percent); M18-34 (+42 percent); M18-49 (+31 percent); M25-54 (+28 percent).
  • The most-viewed Fan Night season ever – NBA TV’s popular Fan Night, in which fans vote for the game they want to see, had its most-viewed season. Fan Night’s 22-game schedule averaged 455,000 viewers (+13 percent) and 362,000 household impressions (+18 percent). An average of 186,000 votes were cast per game across NBA.com, NBA Mobile, the NBA’s Facebook page and Yahoo.com, which was up 104 percent compared to the average of 91,000 votes cast per game last season.
  • Sustaining momentum throughout the seasonstyle=”font-size: x-small;”> – NBA TV’s coverage of the 2012 All-Star festivities in Orlando averaged 102,000 viewers and 84,000 household impressions over the three days, up 50 percent and 45 percent over last year. Additionally, this year’s NBA Trade Deadline show at 2 p.m. ET averaged 122,000 viewers (+ 77 percent) and 116,000 household impressions (+43 percent) over last year’s comparable show.

NBA TV will originally produce up to nine NBA Playoff games this postseason, marking the first time NBA TV will independently produce its playoff games with NBA TV and TNT commentators since the Turner Sports-NBA partnership to jointly manage the NBA’s digital assets. NBA TV’s originally-produced playoff telecasts will include interviews with coaches, who will also wear microphones during the games. Each game night will include the Pregame Show, Halftime Report and NBA GameTime postgame shows.

NBA TV will offer extensive coverage of the playoffs including live first-round games, live studio coverage, pre- and postgame analysis, press conferences, re-aired cut-downs of playoff games and original and encore presentations of NBA GameTime.

NBA TV’s playoff schedule with commentator assignments will be released Friday, April 27.

Source: Nielsen Media Research, StarTrak. Based on Live +Same Day data stream. 2011-12 NBA Regular Season 12/26/11-4/23/12.  2010-11 Regular Season 10/30/10-4/11/11. Most watched game ever based on P2+ (000), 9/27/10-4/23/12. Broadcast Calendar to-date: 2012 12/26/11- 4/23/12, 2011 12/27/10- 4/25/11.Total Day: M-Sun 6A-6A. Prime: M-Sat 8-11P, Sun 7-11P.

That’s all.

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013. He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television. Fang celebrates the three Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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